Kirkus Reviews: Fueling a Reading Addiction with Series Pricing
Pricing tests on e-books and paperbacks, done by both publishers and
self-published authors, is one of the most interesting recent developments in
the book world. The most common of these tests is experimenting with series
sales. Two examples are Debra Webb's Faces of Evil suspense
series and Vicki
Pettersson's Signs of
the Zodiac series. Both are hot topics with book clubs and on readers'
boards. The pricing tests seem to work in bringing new life to sales as well as
introducing a new base of readers to a series and author. The Webb series was
released in e-book format last year and is now available in paperback at a
special low price.
A little history on the Faces of Evil series: ...more
Pity about that spam. I know it can help get people started on a series if the first is priced cheaply... the first may well be a shorter book anyway. But if I come across a book on a shelf and I haven't read any of the series, and this is Book Eight, there is no way I'll pick it up, however interesting it sounds. Crime is the exception because each case is separate even with recurring characters. (Clare O'Beara 2:04pm April 6, 2013)
In an instance like this, I would have to say that word of mouth is more of a factor than anything else. Pricing is an added plus, when I happen to come across that particular Author at the time. It's also nice to see the books come as a set, in case you hear about a particular Author and haven't read all of their books yet. That way you have them all in one set, and don't have to scramble to get the rest of them!! (Peggy Roberson 8:25pm April 10, 2013)